D&D 4E 4E combat illustrated

[WampusCat43]

I ran this combat this past Wednesday.

I altered the encounter a bit by trying to actually ambush the PLAYERS themselves. I concocted a story about a horse-riding band of highwaymen along the road that the PCs learned about at the start of the adventure. I faked the PCs into thinking the highwaymen were barreling down on them, hoping they would make a dash for the rocks in the middle of the map and run straight into the kobolds (I hadn't placed any of those on the map).

Instead they chose to hide directly to one side of the entrance area. I had the poor farmer-with-a-cart trundle into the kobold ambush, forcing the PCs to help defend the poor guy.

In the end the PCs killed all the kobolds without much trouble, although like this writeup, the slinger got away to fight again.

Interestingly enough, he got away from that second battle too, so he is going to have to show up again for round 3 (and the players have found a nemesis from a lowly lvl 1 artillery!)

DS

True dat. That little slinger could show up with a lich next time, and we'd still go after him. Sneaky little toid.

 

[Scarface6174]

The slinger had no chance to get away from us. The Rogue took 2 rounds to do much of anything except for hiding, and when he did come out of hiding, he took out one of the dragonshields in 2 hits, and as the slinger made his way out of the combat, running away, the rogue intercepted him and got a crit on either the daily or encounter power... either way, he did 28 dmg. yeah, that was enough to take out any one of the PCs except for the fighter.... The description was VERY gruesome.

 

[Victim]

It seems like more than half of the attacks in this combat were misses. If a combat lasts a few rounds not because interesting things are happening, but just because both sides are standing there missing each other, that becomes dull after a while. It's those blasted Dragonshields that are the problem, with their 18 AC, but how much worse does it get with hobgoblin soldiers in phalanx? That's an AC of 22 versus these same characters at 2nd and 3rd levels. With the wizards to-hit of +4 with his spells, that means he'd have to roll an 18 or better just to hit them. The other classes don't fare that much better. Like I said, after a while this becomes a problem.

Edit: I mean 17 or better, thanks to the +1 he gets at level 2.

Yes, but wizards don't attack AC.

 

[thewok]

Yep and a mechanic I dislike. Might as well have kept saves

To paraphrase Ben Kenobi, they kept in saves, from a certain point of view.

In 4E, the attacker rolls the dice. So, rather than have the defenders roll against a (generally pretty low) DC, the attacker rolls multiple attacks. I like the change.

If you wanted to house rule it back, subtract 10 from the static defenses and allow the defenders to roll vs. the attacker's roll. However, if the attacker's roll is low, this will suck for the wizard (or whomever), whereas he might have some high and some low in the new system.

 

[robertsconley]

It seems like more than half of the attacks in this combat were misses. If a combat lasts a few rounds not because interesting things are happening, but just because both sides are standing there missing each other, that becomes dull after a while. It's those blasted Dragonshields that are the problem, with their 18 AC, but how much worse does it get with hobgoblin soldiers in phalanx? That's an AC of 22 versus these same characters at 2nd and 3rd levels. With the wizards to-hit of +4 with his spells, that means he'd have to roll an 18 or better just to hit them. The other classes don't fare that much better. Like I said, after a while this becomes a problem.

Edit: I mean 17 or better, thanks to the +1 he gets at level 2.

The defense against most spells is not AC rather fort, reflex or will.

 

[Vempyre]

I noticed you forgot to have the players advance their minis for 2 rounds worth of movement before springing the ambush, which probably gimped the ambush's effectiveness as being closer at the start would have made a lot of difference. As it is only the ranged attackers really got to use the surprise round. The surprise round should have had the melee opponents charge and hit (or try to) in the surprise round.

,then give them 2 rounds to move their characters westward

(but hey thanks for the illustrated fight report!)

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I ran this combat this past Wednesday.

I altered the encounter a bit by trying to actually ambush the PLAYERS themselves. I concocted a story about a horse-riding band of highwaymen along the road that the PCs learned about at the start of the adventure. I faked the PCs into thinking the highwaymen were barreling down on them, hoping they would make a dash for the rocks in the middle of the map and run straight into the kobolds (I hadn't placed any of those on the map).

Instead they chose to hide directly to one side of the entrance area. I had the poor farmer-with-a-cart trundle into the kobold ambush, forcing the PCs to help defend the poor guy.

In the end the PCs killed all the kobolds without much trouble, although like this writeup, the slinger got away to fight again.

Interestingly enough, he got away from that second battle too, so he is going to have to show up again for round 3 (and the players have found a nemesis from a lowly lvl 1 artillery!)

DS

Yoink! That's a brilliant idea, I really hope I can pull that off in my game. I'd love to have this slinger keep turning up throughout their careers - every few fights he's just there on the sidelines, with increasingly powerful pots as he gains experience, until eventually they're forced to track him down and finally dispose of him...

 

[Wepfmokk]

Why did the PCs roll a perception check? I thought it was a static value? (Perception + 10)

 

[Wepfmokk]

hm?

 

[doctorhook]

Yep and a mechanic I dislike. Might as well have kept saves

...It's not really any different now, just backwards. Now the player gets to roll his own attacks, instead of having to wait for the DM to roll all the saves (or, indeed, fudge them).

Why don't you like this mechanic, Warbringer?